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NOTES AND QUERIES. [9'" s. v. JAN. 27, 1900.

issued against him he was indebted to the Crown 600,000/. Besides these he had issued the Reasoner, incurring fines of 40,00$. a week.

(Such was the state of the law when, in 1849, the crusade was commenced to free the Press. Mr. Collet's narrative states that John Francis was first in the field, his plan of action being to attack the three taxes, the Advertisement Duty, the Com- pulsory Stamp, and the Paper Duties, one by one, while Mr. Collet's Association dealt with them col- lectively. The repeal of the Paper Duties was con- templated by Sir Robert Peel in his celebrated Budget of 1845, but he hesitated whether to free glass or paper, and consulted the learned botanist Dr. Lindley, whose arguments in favour of the former were so conclusive that glass got the benefit and paper had to wait ; but for this decision there would have been no ** Palace of Glass " in 1851. Dr. Lindley afterwards rendered good service to paper-makers by being among the foremost to show the quantity of fibre available for the manufacture of paper in the common furze. Mr. Collet's record was not written until he was over eighty ; he died 27 Decem- ber, 1898, at the age of eighty-five. Mr. Holyoake is now the last survivor of those who joined the movement in 1849, and we cordially thank him for the careful way in which he has edited this narrative of his old friend. It is interesting to note that with the commencement of the present year the Austrian newspaper tax ceased to exist. The tax was a farthing on every copy printed.

Aid* to the Poor in a Rural Parish. By T. N.

Brushfield, M.D., F.S.A.

DR. BRUSHFIELD has reprinted from the Trans- actions of the Devonshire Association a paper on the above subject read last August at Great Torring- ton. It completes the cycle of subjects gleaned from the parochial records of East Budleigh, and constitutes a remarkable contribution to the social and ecclesiastical history of the county of Devon. The present portion overflows with matter of keen interest to antiquaries, and we only regret that considerations of space forbid our dealing at any length with matters which are of far more than local importance. The most advanced student of social life will find abundance of things worth attention and study.

Whitaker's Naval and Military Directory and

Indian Army List, 1900. ( Whi taker. ) WE have here another of those works of reference for which the publishing house of Whitaker is renowned. Like other publications of the same firm, it aims at once at comprehensiveness and concentration, and, as investigations prove, it accomplishes its purpose. The name of every officer on the active list of the British and Indian Army is given, together with the dates of his birth, commission, and appointment. So ample and trustworthy is, indeed, the information sup- plied, that some of the sleepy publications which nave monopolized the field will nave to waken and stir themselves. Our own investigations have been remunerative in every case.

Shakespeare- Bacon : an Esmy. (Sonnenschein &

Co.)

THE banner of folly is never allowed to lie long in the dust. So soon as one champion of dulness drops it another raises it aloft. The anonymous author of this pamphlet tries once more to show

hat Bacon wrote Shakespeare's plays. We can nly quote 'Gulliver' concerning the set of artists ery dexterous in finding out the mysterious mean- ngs of words, syllables, and letters, " For instance, hey can discover a close-stool to signify a privy jouncil, a flock of geese a senate, a lame dog an nvader," and so forth. In supplying these parallels, not always too savoury, Swift might have had in )rophetic view our modern readers of ciphers and liscoverers of anagrams.

A LARGE-TYPE edition, in crown octavo, of Dr. Moore's Oxford text of the ' Divina Com media' ,vill be published at once at the Clarendon Press. [t will contain a few emendations and corrections, ind a revised index of proper names by Mr. Paget foynbee. A volume 01 notes by the Rev. H. F. Tozer is in preparation, and should be in the hands f Dante students in little more than a year and a lalf from the present time.

js ixr

We must call special attention to the following totices :

ON all communications must be written the name and address of the sender, not necessarily for pub- ication, but as a guarantee of good faith,

WE cannot undertake to answer queries privately.

To secure insertion of communications corre- spondents must observe the following rules. Let each note, query, or reply be written on a separate slip of paper, with the signature of the writer and such address as he wishes to appear. When answer- ing queries, or making notes with regard to previous entries in the paper, contributors are requested to put in parentheses, immediately after the exact lieading, the series, volume, and page or pages to which they refer. Correspondents who repeat queries are requested to head the second com- munication " Duplicate."

H. T. B. The * Spiritual Quixotte ' was by Richard Graves or Greaves (see Halkettand Laing's 4 Dictionary of Anonymous and Pseudonymous Lite- rature,' p. 2477). ' Letters on the English Nation ' (ib., p. 1447) is said to be by Batista Angeloni, a Jesuit who resided many years in London. Trans- lated from the original Italian by the author of ' The Marriage Act : a Novel.' [By John Shebbeare. J This appears to be your book. The second edition is, however, dated 1756.

R. S. ("'Beak,' a Magistrate"). Columns have been written on this subject. We can only advise you to consult ' Slang and its Analogues, 3 Barrere and Leland's 'Dictionary of Slang, Jargon, and Cant,' 'The English Dialect Dictionary,' and, of course, the ' H.E.D.' The origin of the phrase is practically unknown. Should these references not prove enough, cf. 'N. & Q.,' 4 th S. x. 65, 137; xii. 200 ; 8 th S. iv. 409 ; v. 14, 192.

NOTICE.

Editorial Communications should be addressed to " The Editor of ' Notes and Queries ' "Advertise- ments and Business Letters to "The Publisher" at the Office, Bream's Buildings, Chancery Lane, E. C.

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